When One Door Closes
by Sasha Vane
Summary: It was her duty, her life, to guard the door, but when the door closes behind the other Scouts and Sailor Moon as they escape back in the past, she finds herself in a weak moment . . . And Prince Sapphire has most definitely noticed . . . (One-shot)


The nothingness around the door she guarded had felt even lonelier than it ever had before.

Sailor Pluto supposed that was why the queen had kept her so well isolated, save for the rare visits from the queen or Small Lady, to protect her as she served out her duty. She'd forgotten what it was like to have company, and the sight of the scouts, Small Lady, and a far younger version of her own queen had her wishing she could have gone with them, wishing she could have aided and fought alongside them.

Scouts were not meant to battle alone.

It was the curse of the Outer Scouts. By the time the younger queen came into their company, she had already spent years with the Inner Scouts, and the reserved nature of the Outer Scouts combined with that had left the two groups bereft and poorly meshed. Even in the current era, the Inner Scouts were the ones who protected the queen while the Outer Scouts had been left to the capital's and castle's defenses.

And Sailor Pluto . . . she never had the chance one way or another to see where she would fit, nor would she truly ever have the privilege—a fact the current queen was well aware of. Even the queen's lady mother and the Outer Scouts had known of the cost of Sailor Pluto's burden, though they said little. Like Sailor Saturn, her duty kept her apart from the other scouts.

Still, she couldn't help but love the scouts and her queen—no matter how envious she was of the life they were to lead—any more than she could help the sigh of relief when the queen and king escaped the Black Moon prince and returned to their own time with the rest of the scouts and Small Lady.

She heard the footsteps before she saw them, but she was still surprised when she saw who it was heading her way. She had expected Small Lady, or perhaps the visage of the king who protected the realm as its inhabitants slumbered.

In front of her stood the dark prince himself, dressed in even more elaborate finery than he'd had donned this morning when he'd searched the fog for Small Lady.

She drew her staff in front of her, poised to unleash its power to protect the door and the past at all costs. "You are not welcome here, Prince Sapphire. Leave!"

She wouldn't attack, not instantly, not with the memories of the younger scouts and queen still in her head. Her heart simply wasn't fully into the task, and the prince had yet to provoke her—unlike his elder brother.

"He is going to go after your queen, guardian," the prince replied, looming just out of reach. "It is not like my brother not to pursue what he lusts for, particularly not when he nearly had grasp of it."

Sailor Pluto's grip tightened on her staff. "The Scouts will protect her, just as they always have. It is our duty."

"Duty!" the prince scoffed. "Tell me, Scout, what good duty has done with you here? Face it, girl, you're trapped, and you're helpless to help your queen."

"That is not my purpose." She straightened out the staff, relaxing slightly even as she kept a watchful eye. "My sole purpose is to protect this door from any who would seek to use it."

"I know." The prince's blue eyes flashed. "You nearly caused my brother to lose his mind before Wise Man found us another way. Do you feel your failure, knowing that all of your efforts could not stop my brother from taking your queen?"

She lifted her chin. "No, because I have already helped them find the key to stop your family, Prince Sapphire. It is only a matter of time." She smiled slightly at her words—_time_. Everything came down to a matter of time inevitably.

"Guardian, what is your true name?"

She blinked, taken slightly aback at the prince's change of topic—and sudden lack of hostility. "Sailor Pluto," she answered after a moment's hesitation.

He waved a hand about dismissively. "I didn't ask for your title. I want to know what others close to you call you."

"In another life, perhaps I'll bear another name, Prince Sapphire, but in this one, I am simply Sailor Pluto, the guardian of the door to time. What use have I of a name?" She kept her usual poise, not wishing to allow anyone to see the price of her burden, nor her own surprise at the prince's personal inquiry. "As the last of my family, there is no other to guard the door in my stead, and we only receive a name and place in our courts once we have carried the burden in turn."

Only the royal princesses of Pluto had the ability to carry her burden to safeguard time, and with the downfall of the Silver Moon Kingdom millennia ago, there was no longer a royal family of Pluto to supply the door with gatekeepers. Though the Queen Serenity had reincarnated all of the other Scouts, she could not remove Sailor Pluto from her burden to give her a chance at a new life as well. There would have been too many repercussions, both for the Scouts and herself. Without someone to guard the door, there was no way to guarantee the Princess and her court a chance at a new and better life.

And she swore an oath to guard the door unless and until there was another willing and able to take up the task.

"What did they call you as a child, then?"

"Princess Pluto," she replied, amused by the prince's curiosity. Perhaps this prince was not quite as bad as his brother, for rather than _taking_ what he wanted, he _asked_.

And, she admitted to herself, it had been so long since anyone had cared to know more about her that she couldn't help but be interested herself.

"Perhaps they should have called you Eien or Suteru," the prince replied and her spine stiffened at the insinuations. "Or would you prefer something more promising, such as Kibō?"

"I would prefer Sailor Pluto."

He folded his arms across his chest and glanced off into the wisps of fog surrounding the door. "What do you think we might have been like, if we were born into different lives, without the burdens we now carry?" His voice was soft, almost wistful.

"I have seen much of time, Prince Sapphire, and I believe that the soul is the same no matter the situation or circumstance. Even if we were born to other lives, I believe we would be much the same people we are today," she answered slowly. After all, her queen and the Scouts had not changed from who they were now to whom they'd been in the past from what she remembered of them from the Courts, before she'd taken over the guardianship of the door from her mother.

"My brother was different, Sailor Pluto, before Wise Man became involved," the prince answered. "He became angrier, obsessed, and possessive after Wise Man's influence. I scarcely recognize him anymore."

It took her only a moment to understand what he was suggesting, that his brother would not have changed if it were not for Wise Man. "Maybe he has always been subject to another's influence, and you're only noticing it now."

Prince Sapphire moved closer until he was just out of arm's reach, and she noticed a small smirk when he glanced down at how her hands clutched her staff even more tightly. "Maybe so, but Wise Man has a strong power of suggestion, even stronger than my brother's third eye. Who's to say he is not influencing my brother through that crystal ball?"

"His choices are still his own, and I am sure your brother is not entirely innocent, Prince Sapphire." She barely resisted the urge to take a step back, but this was _her_ territory and she refused to be intimidated.

"No, I suppose none of us are any longer, though your queen is as much to blame for that as we. If she had simply accepted us as we were, or had the courage to do away with us herself, we would not have been stuck in limbo and willing to accept any aid given to us. There is no one innocent here." The prince reached out with one hand to touch one of her own. "These hands must be as tainted as mine, for I'm sure you've had to deal with your fair share of those trying the door you guard."

She flinched. "I have other methods of dealing with them, Sapphire," she retorted, dropping his formal title. "There is never just one way to resolve an issue."

"Mayhap we should try another way." Before she could reply, he used his grip on her hands to tug her forward, staff and all, straight into his embrace. "Relax, little scout," he breathed out. "I have no desire for your staff or door. I'm merely exploring other alternatives."

She froze in his arms, trying not to notice how his hands moved up and down her back in a soothing motion. It had been so long since anyone had touched her, so long since anyone had reached out to her in any sort of meaningful way . . .

She would no doubt regret this later and berate herself for taking no action, but she couldn't deny the overwhelmingly human need to just feel and be accepted. She _craved_ this, no matter how much she continually denied it to herself, and perhaps if she just indulged this once, she'd have a memory to keep with her long after he'd left and peace had once more been restored to the universe.

Even if that peace came at the cost of the lives of all of the Black Moon kingdom.

She swallowed and hesitantly reached up with one hand to awkwardly hug him back, even as her other hand helped keep her own staff wedged between them—a blatant reminder of how her duty must come first before anything else.

"Meet my eyes, guardian." His voice was low, even, and she felt compelled to glance up to meet vibrant blue eyes. "Good."

In between one breath and the next, his hand suddenly cupped the back of her head and his lips were pressing against hers, dominating her in a heated kiss that made her sag against him. As he slowly deepened the kiss, she began kissing him back, hating her weakness in the back of her mind even as she caved into her own need to be touched.

He tilted her head to one side as he moved to kiss from her lips down to the base of her neck, and she was startled to realize her fingers were digging into the thick embroidered cloth at his back.

"Prince Sapphire! Oh, just wait until Prince Diamond finds out about this! Oh ho ho!"

Both of them jumped at the familiar laugh, glancing up to see Emerald hovering above them.

"So much for being a loyal brother, Prince Sapphire!" She laughed as she brought her bejeweled fan up to her face. "He is going to be so ashamed to learn you were kissing the enemy."

"As though he didn't try and kiss the little queen himself," she heard Prince Sapphire grumble, and she jumped back in shock.

She felt betrayed and she felt used. Had the whole point of Sapphire's little exercise been to humiliate both herself and his own brother?

"Oh? Does it hurt to be used? How tragic! Another lovesick Scout!" Emerald laughed again, and this time Sailor Pluto barely kept a cap on her rage.

_This_ was the woman who had attempted to kidnap Small Lady, and _he_ was the man whose brother had kidnapped the young queen. How had she allowed herself to forget that?

"You will both leave here," she said, forcing her voice to be both level and cold, "and you will never return to this door again."

"Oh, I've already gotten my amusement! Oh ho ho!" Emerald turned to wink at Sapphire. "I bet I'll return to share the news with our prince before you do!"

Prince Sapphire's fists clenched as he turned back to Sailor Pluto just moments after Emerald disappeared. "This isn't over yet, Sailor Pluto," he warned. "I am not going to let what happened go that easily. I_ will_ see where this goes . . . and so will you."

He vanished, and she resisted the sudden, uncharacteristic urge to throw something.

"You have no choice, Sapphire. I will not let you find your way to my door again," she spoke aloud, moving to stand just before the door in a staunch pose she'd grown far too comfortable in. "You have nothing left to offer me."

A small wind blew about the fog around her, and she willed herself not to shiver from the sudden cold. The cold she was used to—Pluto had become colder now than it had once been, but it had never exuded the warmth the Moon or Earth Kingdoms had possessed.

There was a certain comfort to the familiarity, and she allowed herself to become lost in it, lest she become lost in what had just happened instead.

.

_A/N: _Eien_ means "_eternal,_" _Suteru_ means "_abandoned_," and _Kibō_ means "_hope_." Roughly, anyways, because my Japanese was simply never the best and it's been awhile. I probably butchered turning them into female names but oh well! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. _

_As I've said before, I like doing one-shots for my many, many fandoms, and I'll continue doing so as long as there's at least one person to read them. Of course, encouragement or challenges often to provoke me to write more as well in all honesty. _

_This one was inspired partially by Sailor Pluto—who is by far my favorite scout and, in my opinion, of the ones who gets the least love—and partially by my desire to pair _someone_ with Black Moon princes other than Wicked Lady or Sailor Moon. Y'know, for diversity (plus I rather enjoy creating new/weird pairings)._

_Fun side note: I had intended to write this story with Diamond instead, but I liked this way better in the end. I might come back to Diamond in another one-shot later . . . we'll see._


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